Whether you want to explore the sunken German WWI High Seas Fleet wrecks at Scapa Flow, the sunken Japanese WWII wrecks at Truk Lagoon or read about my adventures diving shipwrecks around the world, these books will give you everything you need to know!

I took up diving in the early 1980s – it seems so long ago now – before even Wham were popular. I developed an interest in shipwrecks after my first dive trip to Scapa Flow in Orkney where the remains of the German High Seas Fleet from Word War I still lie on the seabed – 4 cruisers, 3 gigantic battleships along with many other shipwrecks.

San Francisco Maru –Truk Lagoon (c) Ewan Rowell

At the time there was virtually no information on the wrecks available for divers – and this led me to come up with the idea of writing a Dive Guide to the Scapa wrecks. The First Edition of Dive Scapa Flow was published in 1990 and soon became the essential and ever present guide to diving in Scapa Flow. Recently it has been totally rewritten and given a 21st century make over for its centenary 6th edition, published to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet on 21 June 2019.

Dive Scotland’s Greatest Wrecks followed in 1992 covering the histories and current condition of the classic Scottish wreck dives – and this was followed by a complimentary book about the top 10 wrecks south of the border, Dive England’s Greatest Wrecks

The Diving Trilogy

Into the Abyss – Diving to Adventure in the Liquid World is a collection of all the incidents, hilarious and serious, that crammed themselves into my early diving career from novice diver, through the dangers of the ‘deep air’ days until the arrival of open circuit Trimix diving which opened up vast areas of the sea previously out of reach for standard air divers. It covers my panic stricken first sea dives and subsequents forays into increasingly deeper water in search of virgin wrecks – with a dive into the Corryvreckan Whirlpool, one of the largest in the world, thrown in as well

The Darkness Below, released in October 2011, covers my transition from deep air diving to trimix diving – where we use helium gas mixes to make deeper diving safe – and on to trimix rebreather diving. Along the way we dive shipwrecks in Scapa Flow, the South China Seas, Norway, Truk Lagoon, Palau and other fabulous locations.

Deeper into the Darkness, published in 2018, carries the story through to the present day with daring penetrations deep into vast shipwrecks on the bottom of Truk Lagoon, Palau and Guadalcanal as well as dives on some of the famous WWI shipwrecks around the UK such as HMS Pathfinder, HMS Audacious, HMS Hampshire and HMS Vanguard.

Great British Shipwrecks – A Personal Adventure focusses on 37 of the most famous shipwrecks around the UK that I have personally explored. In a coffee table style format, the history of each wreck is recounted and the wreck itself is beautifully illustrated with topside and underwater photographs – and stunning illustrations of the wreck on the seabed today.

Force Z Shipwrecks of the South China Sea – HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulsewas released in March 2013 at OZTeK 2013 and covers the careers of these two famous British capital ships and their subsequent demise to a massed attack by 85 Japanese bombers – the sinking of Prince of Wales heralded the end of the era of the battleship.

Dive Truk Lagoon– the Japanese WWII Pacific shipwrecks covers the 37 major shipwrecks and aircraft wrecks of the world’s greatest wreck diving location; the legacy of the American Operation Hailstone of 17/18 February 1944.

Dive Palau – the Shipwrecks covers the 20 major shipwrecks of the U.S. Operation Desecrate 1 – that followed just 6 weeks after Truk Lagoon was neutralised in Operation Hailstone.

Shipwrecks of Truk Lagoon is a slim booklet covering 21 of Truk Lagoon’s most famous wrecks in a easy to read, visual format filled with illustrations of the wrecks as they lie at the bottom of the lagoon today.

Many thanks to Bob Anderson skipper of the MV Halton dive boat and to Ewan Rowell for use of their fine photography.